1973•Research in African LiteraturesRequires access
Early fiction in Igbo
Ernest Emenyo̲nu
Open publisher page 0 citations
Abstract
The first Igbo to publish fiction in Igbo was Peter Nwana. His novel Omenukol was published in I933 after it had won an all African literary contest in indigenous African languages organized by the International Institute of African Languages and Culture. It is a biographical novel based on actual events in the life of the hero Omenuko, whose home was a favorite spot for students and tourists in Eastern Nigeria in the fifties.2 The novel has been reprinted several times in various Igbo orthographies and is still a classic in Igbo literature. It is today the most widely read novel in the Igbo language. Generations of Igbo children begin their reading3 in Igbo with Omenuko, and children who do not have the opportunity to go to school still read Omenuko in their homes or at adult education centers. Omenuko's sayings have become part of the Igbo